Do You Trust Me?
by MidnaVocaloid02
Summary: So Claire's journey with The Doctor begins. She jumps into the TARDIS and lands onto an old Shapeshifter carrier that was used during the First Planetary Colonization of the Shapeshifters. A shaking TARDIS later lands The Doctor, Claire, and Rose into different places of the same ship, The Vermillion. So what happened to The Vermillion and is trust so easily earned with a Shifter?


Doctor Who  
Do You Trust Me?  
Chapter 1: The Vermillion

"You let anything happen to Claire, there's going to be one less Time Lord in the galaxy!" Catherine roared.

"Yes mum!" The Doctor smiled as he followed Calire and Rose.

"So what are Shapshifters?" Rose asked Claire.

"Actually, we were about to figure that out when my lab was destroyed and I had to run away with the others." Claire said.

"And what did you come up with?" The Doctor asked.

"We were able to figure out that our ancestors didn't have an actual form, or at least a noticeable one." Claire explained. "Our final assumption was that we were just mere masses of energy; basically all the size of a bouncy ball."

"Then how were you able to become what you are now?" Rose asked.

"That's what we were trying to figure out but before we could start there was a pureblood agent that thought we were helping the half-breeds and he burned down the whole place." She added. "So much for figuring out our origins."

The Doctor was busy pulling levers and inputting coordinates to all over the center of the TARDIS. Claire and Rose watched as he jumped around with his maniacal smile. Claire started to laugh at what he was doing.

"What's so funny?" He asked.

"You." She scoffed.

"So where are we going?" Rose asked.

"Do you really want to hear that romantic speech again?" Claire asked.

"You were with him before?" Rose asked.

"No, just a lucky guess." Claire said. "Besides, just look at him. He's a helpless man with a highly charismatic aura."

"Is that your way of saying I look good?" He asked.

"I dunno." Claire shrugged. "Is it?"

"Anyways, where do you two wanna go?" He grinned.

"And the awkward moment has passed." Claire laughed. "Hmm… I've never been outside of Tartarus or Raiden; Tartarus' moon. Though I have been to Mars and the Moon before."

"You went to the Moon?" Rose asked.

"Who do you think gave those Americans the moon rocks they found?" Claire smirked. "I just left them in easy places for them to find and they helped me figure out that you are only a few steps away from space travel. Give or take a few decades… maybe a century?"

"Somewhere around there." The Doctor agreed.

"Great, more nerd talk." Rose sighed.

"Hey!" Claire and the Doctor said in unison.

"Oh, deal with it." Rose said.

Just then the TARDIS gave a powerful push and then a pull; making them all tumble around in the machine. Claire managed to get her balance as the strange rumbling subsided and grabbed something from her pocket. She looked at her bracelet as she continued to type random keys.

"What's going on?" Rose asked.

"Dunno!" The Doctor said as he started pressing button and pulling levers on the TARDIS.

Claire typed in the last couple of keys on her device and then opened one of the TARDIS' doors. She looked around and didn't see the time vortex like she should have. Instead it was outer space itself. Claire looked around and noticed a few asteroids and planet satellites circling nearby planets. She could see a familiar spaceship nearby with several strange markings on it.

"Hey! Claire?!" Rose called out.

"Yeah?" Claire answered.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Thought I'd take a look outside." Claire said. "In the… Oh! This is interesting. We're in the Ha'Cha system; where Tartarus is."

The TARDIS gave another push and Claire fell back into the machine. She closed the door with her foot and got to her feet. She went over to the TARDIS' console and started inputting some sort of codes into the command system.

"What are you doing?" The Doctor said frantically.

"Don't you trust me?" Claire grinned. "Now hold on tight and remember the rule about dealing with Shapeshifters."

And before The Doctor could react, the TARDIS gave one last push and Claire disappeared. The device she had fell out of her hand and onto the floor and was tossed around with The Doctor and Rose.

~~Somewhere else~~  
"Blimey that hurt." Claire groaned as she slowly got to her feet.

She looked around and tried to figure out where she was. Nothing but darkness was around her. She sighed and shifted her hand into torch. She looked around for a while and groaned.

"Well this is taking me places." She sighed. "ROSE! DOC?" She looked around and shrugged.

"'Cause I love a good game of hide n' seek." She sighed. "I wonder where I am… Hope they're all right."

Claire continued to walk around as she searched for her friends. She shifted her arm into a flare gun and fired it into the darkness above her. The whole area lit up in a matter of seconds and Claire looked around.

"A junkyard?" She murmured. "Hmm… This looks like… but it couldn't be…" Claire fumbled around with the idea for a moment when something came from the shadows and ambushed her.

~~The TARDIS~~  
"Doctor?!" Rose called out.

"Yeah?" He answered as he popped up from behind the center of the TARDIS.

"Where are we and what happened to Claire?" She asked. The Doctor looked around for a moment then shrugged.

"Not sure…" He muttered and ran outside of the TARDIS. Rose followed and then jumped back when he scurried back in. She watched him frantically look for something and looked around the area.

"Is this a ship?" She asked.

"Give me a second!" The Doctor called out. "Now where did it go? She had it right before…. AH-HA!" He grabbed a strange device and ran over to Rose. "This belonged to… who are you?"

Three people stood in front of Rose and were gawking at her; as if they've never seen a person in their life. The Doctor stepped between her and the strange men. They all looked up at him with raised eyebrows.

"Who are you?" One of them asked. He looked like a modern day kid with all the colors in his hair. The other two beside him looked relatively normal but also kind of looked strange; in that unexplained way.

"I asked first!" The Doctor said. The one who spoke shook his head and shrugged.

"I'm Dante." He said. "This is Light," he pointed the guy on his left, "and this is Michael." He said as he pointed to the guy on his right. "And you are?"

"The Doctor and this is Rose." The Doctor said.

"Nothing else?" Dante joked. "Anyways, what're you guys doing here?"

"Just thought we'd drop by." The Doctor shrugged.

"We're looking for a friend, her name is Claire?" Rose said, seeing if that got their attention.

"Dunno anyone named Claire." Dante shrugged. "What about you two?" Both Light and Michael shook their heads.

"Maybe she's somewhere else?" Michael asked. "This place is huge."

"Where are we exactly?" The Doctor asked.

"We're on The Vermillion." Light said. "In the Ha'Cha system."

"Why do you ask?" Michael asked. "Did ya hit your head or something?"

"Something like that…" Rose said.

"The Vermillion…?" The Doctor muttered. "Where did I hear about that…"

"From me, you dolt…" A voice groaned. Everyone looked around in confusion. "Right here, you gobshite!" The voice hollered. The Doctor looked at his hand, forgetting about what he found on the TARDIS.

"Oh!" He laughed. "Hello Claire!"

"'Bout bloody time you realized I was here!" Claire growled. She was a little hologram that was hovering over the device Claire had before she disappeared.

"Very clever." The Doctor observed. "One of her handheld devices made into a simulator."

"You want to be simulated? Come here where I can see ya." Claire threatened. "Anyways, you heard about The Vermillion from me. And before you ask, I have no idea where I am either. I'm probably somewhere on the ship itself."

"What's The Vermillion?" Rose asked.

"It's one of the first spaceships that the Shapeshifters used to explore the planets around our system. Basically a colonization mission and anything else that goes with it." Claire explained.

"And what are you?" Rose asked.

"Weren't you listening?" Claire sighed. "I'm what you would call a hologram. The real me made this simulator a long time ago; but only recently tried to make it so I could help answer any questions you'd have." She said. "Because we all know that The Doctor here loves to forget things."

"Where's the off button?" The Doctor asked.

"Where's yours?" Claire spat.

"Well, shall we look for your friend?" Michael asked. "She looks like that hologram, right?"

~~The Vermillion – Cargo Hold~~  
"Wahh!" The shadow creature screamed as Claire knocked it off its feet. She patted off the dirt on her jacket sleeves and gave the creature a strange look.

"For something that was twice my height, I'm a little shocked I could take you down." She muttered as he hand shifted into a torch again. "Now let's have a look at you."

Claire knelt down to look at the shaking creature. It had pale skin and patches of black fur all over it. It had some animalistic features, similar to animals from Earth, but nothing else. Its wide yellow eyes stared at her curiously. She examined it a little closer and scratched her head.

"All right, I'll bite. What's an Alk doing here?" She said. "For that matter I need to figure out what _here_ is."

"You're on The Vermillion." It said.

"The Vermillion?" Claire repeated. "We're really far away from home, hmm?" The creature shrugged its shoulders and continued to stare at Claire. She stood up and looked around a bit. "I'm guessing where in the cargo hold, yeah?"

"Yes ma'am." The creature nodded. "The Paragons said we'd need their help."

"Help for what?" Claire said. "The Alks I know don't do much for the Shifters."

"We're going to help them but maintaining the first colonization site The Vermillion lands on." IT said with pride.

"Hmm…." Claire thought over what it had said and scratched her head again. "Are there more of you?"

"Of course." The Alk nodded. "There's always more than one Alk."

"Because you guys travel in packs if you're left alone for too long…" Claire murmured. "But is there anything else down here? Besides equipment and you guys of course."

"Nothing ma'am." Another Alk said. Claire looked at the second one as a few more Alks surrounded him.

"Can we ask something, ma'am?" One of them said politely.

"Sure." Claire nodded.

"What's a Paragon doing down here?" It asked.

"How did you know I was one?" Claire said. It pointed to her bracelet and she looked at it. "Oh!" She laughed. "That's a good reason. First off, I'm a different kind of Paragon. Second, I really don't know how I got down here. I was with a Time Lord and his friend. We got separated."

~~The Vermillion – Near Bridge~~  
"That explains how you got here." Dante said. "Hardly see any kind of Gallifrey tech anymore."

"Gallifrey?" Rose asked.

"His home." Claire answered.

"Oh." Rose shrugged. "What are you guys doing?"

"Trying to find another planet to populate." Light answered. "Ours is getting a little war-ridden and overpopulated."

"Just try not to kill anyone on the next one, eh?" The Doctor said.

"No promises there." Michael answered. "War is all the Shifters know."

Rose and The Doctor looked at one another for a moment before following the Shapeshifters. Dante looked at them and shrugged.

"So about your friend, what kind of Shifter is she?" He asked.

"A Bi-"

"A Paragon." The Doctor said, interrupting Rose.

"What in?" He asked.

"Technology." The Doctor answered. Rose gave The Doctor a dirty look and he responded by pointing to the hologram of Claire. She looked up at Rose and lowered her voice.

"The Shifters name themselves thousands of different surnames once they become a Paragon. It's based on generation. Claire's generation are closely related to birds; hence Birds of Prey." Claire said. "It's similar to codenames or nicknames."

"That's weird." Rose said.

"Everyone's different." Claire shrugged.

"So… who are they?" Rose asked.

"The Shapeshifters?" She asked. Rose nodded and looked at Claire curiously. "Well… how to put this…"

"A Paragon of Technology?" Dante laughed. "Maybe you hit your head harder than you think."

"There's no such thing as a Paragon of Technology." Michael said. "Paragons of Knowledge are the only things that exist."

"They're the first of the Paragons." Claire said. "But what's strange, is that I can't bring up what happens during this exploration. I know the events that were conducted after but not during."

"What about Claire? Can she…?" Rose asked.

"I'm working off her memory." Claire said. "And she can't remember what happens but one thing does keep appearing."

"And that is…?" Rose asked again.

"Remember the rule about the Shapeshifters." Claire said.

"Shapeshifters are the masters of deceit." The Doctor said. "They are double-edged swords."


End file.
